Poe has arrived!!

CathnPoe

New member
Oct 17, 2012
90
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1
0
NSW, Australia
Parrots
1 male Eclectus, Poe.
Hello all,

My name is Catherine. I'm a student (just finished a philosophy and art-history degree) and am due to go into Masters next year, as I wish to go into art teaching. After 6+ months of vigorous parrot research (it consumed me to the point on obsession as HUNDREDS of hours were dedicated to behavioural and Eclectus research... as my family and boyfriend will tell you), I can rejoice in parrot companionship.

I have already posted a little on this forum, but can finally post from personal experience rather than from book-knowledge.

My darling Eclectus parrot, Poe (Solomon Island/ Red sided cross) arrived 2 weeks ago. He is nearly 12 weeks old and I have been watching him grow since he was a month old.

He is a little ball of joy and has the most gorgeous personality I could have asked for. He loves cuddles and adores head-scratches!! That's right, all those "eclectus-don't-like-head-scratches-because-of-their-feather-type" is not the case with Poe. He rubs his head into my hand and closes his eyes while I scratch around his beak, cheeks and eyes.

I toilet trained (or rather toilet-commanded) him within 3 days.... he stills poos on me, but will poo on command so as long as I offer him the opportunity every 5min or so, I remain clean!

He doesn't have good foot coordination yet, so falls off perches when he falls asleep. When he naps on me he lies down on my chest and chatters endearingly.

His vocabulary has been rapidly developing and he has really developed his own voice as he experiments with different tones and clicks. The only times he squawks is when he's just flown into a window (the breaks don't work so well, but he's getting better).

He loves playing "beak", where I grab his beak and say 'beak' and then give it a scratch. Very cute.

On the second day I had him, he flew for the first time. There was no stimulus; no fright or jolt. He just decided it was time. He played with toys from the first day despite many people saying not to put toys in the cage for the first week. He leapt to and from his boing the very same day he flew as his confidence literally soared with his new found ability.

He is the most cuddly little chap and while is content to sit quietly in his cage, eagerly comes out for cuddles.

He has just got over a staph infection that he contracted from the breeders home, so the poor fellow was on antibiotics for the first week he was in his new home. He dealt with it like a pro. He was also malnourished from too much egg&biscuit, so his peak was very pale. But has really picked-up and now has a mango-coloured beak after just 2 weeks! I was giving him my organic mix of soaked beans /broccoli/ blueberry/ strawberry/ carrot/ sweet potato/ pumpkin/ rice/ passion fruit/ apple/ zucchini/ quinoa/chilli/cinnamon (yes, there is a lot of cooking) and to all this I mix his specially adapted suppliments provided to me by my vet... who also happens to be one of the world's Eclectus specialists, Dr Rob Marshall. (I'm very lucky... and now very poor.)

He has no fears, no hesitations, loves new people, loves baths (and hair-dryers), likes the harness (as it means going outside), tries all new foods and happily feeds himself (if I have the time to let him munch for two hours).

Wow, can you tell I'm in love? What a rant!
Thanks for reading and I'll see you all on the forum.

xx
Catherine and Poe
 

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aliray

New member
Jan 28, 2012
2,269
1
Rotonda West , Fla
Parrots
yellow sided green cheek conure,Chiquita Quaker parrot Sweetie Pie, African red bellied parrot Tiki, spanish timbrado canary Lucas
Welcome to you and Poe. and yes I can see your head over heels in love. which is as it should be. Congrats on your new baby and welcome to the forum:)
 
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CathnPoe

CathnPoe

New member
Oct 17, 2012
90
Media
1
0
NSW, Australia
Parrots
1 male Eclectus, Poe.
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #4
Copperarabian, I have already read that article, thanks though.
Poe doesn't quite get the colour variation apparent in the adult bird... but then he very rarely elongates in surprise and has never bitten me in aggression. Hopefully it will stay this way, but then he is still a baby.
 

MikeyTN

New member
Feb 1, 2011
13,296
17
Antioch, TN
Parrots
"Willie"&"Lola"B&G Macaw,
"Dixie"LSC2, and "Nico" Scarlet Macaw.
Congrats on your new baby!!!!

You said that he falls off his perch during sleep. Do you keep him in a smaller cage with the perches low for now? Cause I know in bigger cages, even if you place the perches low towards the bottom, they will climb upwards and sit on their food dishes instead. Both of mine LOVES head scratches, I wonder who told you they don't? I posted a video of my ekkie enjoying the blow dryer after bath, JoJo LOVES it!!!! Gracie on the other hand isn't a fan of the blow dryer but she tolerates it.
 
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CathnPoe

CathnPoe

New member
Oct 17, 2012
90
Media
1
0
NSW, Australia
Parrots
1 male Eclectus, Poe.
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #8
MikeyTN, thanks for replying. He has a travel size sleeping cage that I can cover so he gets ample sleep. It doesn't have any perches.
His large cage gets almost no use as he's with me practically all day... little worried he's going to get dependent and struggle when uni starts up again.
He hasn't fallen off perches for over a week, especially with his wings in use.
I couldn't quote you the source, but I've read on multiple sites that because of the feather type, Eclectus only like their backs and wings being touched. Clearly this was just the case with some birds rather than the species, but I have read it so widely I naively assumed it true.
Btw, You have a lovely sounding flock.
 

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